Biggest Dota 2 Spring Roster Changes

Roster changes are a common occurrence in the Dota 2 scene following big tournaments, and the Shanghai Major was no different. All teams had a chance to change up their rosters from March 7 to 27, after which they will remain locked until completion of the 6th annual International in August. And while some teams, including big names like Na’Vi, Alliance, and OG decided to stick with the same players, other top teams introduced fresh faces. You can check out the most important roster swaps below:

Team EG

Without a doubt one of the bigger announcements, NA superstars Evil Geniuses lost Arteezy and Universe, who were replaced by Bulba and Aui_2000. Both of them have played with EG in the past so the shuffle is not as dramatic as it would seem.

Aui_2000 returns to the team he won TI5 with. Source: GosuGamers

Team Secret

Arguably the second biggest change is for Team Secret, who took Arteezy and Universe from EG and released w33 and misery. Arteezy will take the mid position at Secret, contrary to his usual role as the hard carry.

Digital Chaos

NA newcomer DC have been working their way towards picking up better and better players, and it looks like they might finally have the talent they need to start making a big impact at tournaments. DC picked up both w33 and misery from Secret, to go along with Resolut1on whom they took in from Empire, as well as Saska and Moo.

Team Empire

European elites Empire had to pretty much reform their roster after releasing or having their players go to other teams. The new team consists of 5 elite Russian players: Roman ‘RAMZES666’ Kushnarev, Roman ‘Scandal’ Sadotenkov, Vasily ‘Afterlife’ Shishkin, Yaroslav ‘Miposhka’ Naidenov and Rinat ‘KingR’ Abdullin.

Team Spirit

Spirit recently stole Funn1k from Empire, and now they got another new player – Ilya ‘Illidan’ Pevcaev, replacing Ramzes666 and Afterlife, who both went over to Empire.

Team Vega Squadron

Although VG stuck with the same team since TI5, they finally announced one major change, replacing Pavel “9Pasha” Hvastunovwith Rostislav “fn” Lozovoi.

Meanwhile, most of the Chinese teams traded players with each other, or brought in newcomers from their secondary squads over to the main team. The new rosters will be most prominently featured in the upcoming ESL One Manilla tournament, as well as the biggest Dota 2 tournament of the year, the 6th annual International.